Antiquariat oder Antiquitäten?

As is apparent to the average tourist to Vienna, dozens of antique stores, book shops, artist studios and other sorts of frivolous "specialty shops" lines the city's streets. Especially in my neighborhood, which is at the border of the 6th and 7th district, plenty of interesting-looking display windows beckon.


It seems to me that most of these places are hardly ever open, or open at the most inconvenient times for patrons (for example, from 10am to noon, three hour lunch break, and open again from 3 to 5 pm). This makes me wonder whether they ever do get customers, or sell anything. Perhaps these businesses are just fronts for nefarious activity (while I was at Lawrence, there was a dress shop that was never open - we suspected it to be a mob front) or perhaps a warehouse for some over the top collector.


In any case, some of the displays are quite bizarre. You can see for yourself here:

marzipan sunflowers

Lippizaner horse cake

Gucci

a leather kangaroo

Not all of these are from antique shops. Some are chain stores, or high-end shops, like Swarovski and  the Gucci store on Kärntner Strasse.  But each is...well, unique! Take a look at what Vienna's shops have to offer: 

stuffed birds wearing Swarovski